Fear is the Mind Killer

Fear truly is the mind killer.

Possibly its most insidious quality is that it is malleable; it is adaptable; it takes many forms. It manifests in its most obvious form as anxiety or something similar; but just as readily, it may appear as boredom, as uncertainty, as “logic.”

The reason starting, and taking action, has so much power regardless of outcome is that we lower the resistance; we overcome fear, even if only a little bit. But it allows us to chip away. To possibly improve other areas of our life and reduce the fear by taking that action. Not knowing what we’re doing truly is scary. But we are all beginners once. We aren’t born knowing how to crawl. We aren’t born knowing how to walk. We aren’t born knowing how to talk. And we don’t learn how in one hour, one day, one week, or even one month. But we learn. And as we get older, if we pay attention, we get better at learning.

Many roads lead to Rome. But the one road you can be assured won’t take you there is the road you never get on. Standing on the sidelines and watching others go by, thinking to yourself, “well that’s not the most direct route,” still leaves you standing on the side of the road. That particular road may take the travelers even further away than you currently stand; but it will get them there eventually, if they’re paying attention. “Correcting course,” while necessary, is always relative. It can only be done in accordance with where you are, where you’re headed, where you want to go, and how fast you’re going. But if you’re not moving, it doesn’t matter where you’re pointed, or where you want to go. The only thing we can know we have to change if we’re standing still is move faster. A velocity of 0, regardless of which direction you’re pointed, still gets you nowhere.

So set off, destination unknown if necessary. There is great power in starting. Reverse course as early as possible, if necessary. But get moving.

It’s easy to face fear in the sterile environment of your mind, when nothing is at stake (although, something is nearly always at stake), no different than telling yourself you won’t eat that dessert the next time it’s staring you in the face. But sometimes a sterile environment is necessary to gain the confidence and momentum necessary to make the correct decisions when faced with them. In the same way that you might have to put yourself in an environment free of temptation for a time in order to develop the right eating habits, you may have to make the decisions easy for yourself regarding whatever is currently keeping you from taking action. Make small, achievable targets. Make them often, and make them routine.

Consider a young child learning to hit a baseball. You don’t throw them in against live pitching. They hit off a tee. Then soft toss. Then front toss/coach pitch/machine pitch. Then live pitching. All very controlled, and not progressed until sufficient skill is shown. There is no reason the same cannot be done in all facets. However, what is required is that the individual make a commitment to doing so and submit themselves to the process.